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# THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS
Adaptation and original lyrics by Lee Breuer
Adapted lyrics by Bob Telson and Lee Breuer
Music by Bob Telson
---
Before the show begins, please turn *off* your cell phone and all other electronic devices.
---
<!-- SHOW START -->
---
[organ music]
---
[music stops]
---
## THESEUS:
Think no longer that you are in command here,
---
But, rather, think how when you were
You served your own destruction.
---
Welcome, brothers and sisters.
I take as my text this evening the Book of Oedipus.
---
Oedipus! Dammed in his birth, in his marriage damned,
Dammed by the blood he shed with his own hand!
---
Oedipus! A man so pitifully ensnared in the net of his own life’s destiny…
---
Net of incest, mingling wives, sisters, mothers, with fathers, sons, brothers.
---
You have all heard of the death of Jocasta. Jocasta.
---
Whose husband was by her husband, whose children were by her child.
---
You have heard how the wretched Oedipus found her body swaying from the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck.
---
How a great sob broke from him, heartbreaking to hear, as he loosed the rope and lowered her body to the ground.
---
I would blot out from my mind what happened next! For they say this King ripped from her gown the golden brooches that were her ornaments,
---
and raised them on high, and plunged them down
straight into his own eyeballs, crying,
---
“No more, no more shall you look on the misery about me, the horrors of my own doing!”
---
“Too long you have known the faces of those whom I never should have seen, too long been blind to those for whom I was searching!”
---
“From this hour, go in darkness!”
---
And as he spoke, he struck at his eyes—
Not once, but many times; they say the blood burst from his ruined sockets like red hail.
---
Net of blood! His father’s blood, his own blood, shed by his own hand.
---
In Exodus where it speaks of his death in a place called Colonus… which was sacred... And his redemption there…
---
We direct you to lines 275 through 279, wherein he cries out to his daughters:
---
“I could say much to you if you could understand me. But as it is, I have only this prayer for you:
---
Live where you can. Be as happy as you can –
Happier, please God, than God has made your father.” Amen.
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Don’t go…away…
Father…won’t you stay…
---
template: song
Don’t go…away…
Father…won’t you stay…
Ooh…Ooh…Ooh
---
template: song
## SOLOISTS:
Let every man consider his last day
When youthful pleasures have faded away
Can he look at his life without pain?
---
template: song
Let every child remember how to pray
For the lost of the Earth to find the way
And the Kingdom of Heaven reign.
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
Ooo
Happier than God has made your father
---
template: song
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
For he may not be here tomorrow
Ooo
---
template: song
## SOLOISTS:
O Father let the singer sing for thee
Let word and song and harmony
---
template: song
Be mightier than the sword
O vision holy vision come to me
---
template: song
Let word and song and harmony
Be a sound like the voice of the Lord
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
Ooo
Happier than God has made your father
---
template: song
Live where you can
Be happy as you can
For he may not be here tomorrow
Ooo
---
template: song
(vamping) Don’t go…away…O Father…won’t you stay?
---
template: song
Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. Ooo.
---
## EVANGELIST:
(speaking over the music) Men and Women of Thebes: look upon Oedipus.
---
This is the king who solved the famous riddle and towered up, most powerful of men.
---
No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, yet in the end ruin swept over him.
---
Let every man in mankind’s frailty consider his last day;
---
and let none presume on his good fortune until he find life, at his death, a memory without pain. Amen.
---
template: song
## SOLOISTS:
So don’t go…
---
[music ends]
---
## OEDIPUS:
Daughter! Sister!
---
[organ music under]
## THESEUS:
Alas for the seed of men.
---
What measure shall we give these generations that breath on the void and are void and exist and do not exist?
---
Majestic Oedipus! O naked brow of wrath and tears, O change of Oedipus!
---
I who saw your days call no man blest — your great days — like ghosts are gone.
---
True King, giver of laws, majestic Oedipus!
---
No prince in Thebes had ever known such renown
No prince won such grace of power.
---
And now of all men ever known most pitiful is this man’s story: His fortunes are most changed, his state Fallen.
---
All eyes fail before time’s eye, all actions come to justice there.
---
Though never willed, though far down the deep past, your bed, your dread sirings, are brought to book at last.
---
Child by Laius doomed to die, then doomed to lose that fortunate little death —
---
Would God you never took breath in this air that with my wailing lips I take to cry: for I weep the world’s outcast.
---
I was blind! And now I can tell why: Asleep! For he had given ease of breath to Thebes, while the false years went by.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Daughter!
---
## THESEUS:
He speaks, saying: “Daughter! Daughter of a blind old man…”
---
## OEDIPUS:
Where have we come to…
---
## THESEUS:
“Where have we come to now, Antigone?”
---
## OEDIPUS:
Who will be kind to me?
---
## THESEUS:
Who will be kind to Oedipus this evening? And give alms…
---
## OEDIPUS:
Who will give alms?
## THESEUS:
“Who will give alms to the wanderer?”
Though he ask little and receive still less!
---
## OEDIPUS:
That’s all right.
## THESEUS:
It is sufficient.
---
## THESEUS:
“Suffering and time,” he says, suffering and time, vast time, have been his teachers in contentment. “But now, child…”
---
## OEDIPUS:
Now, child. If you can find a resting place…
## THESEUS:
“Child. If you can find a resting place…”
---
## ANTIGONE:
I see a man now, not far away. Father you must ask what place this is.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Friend…
## THESEUS:
“Friend, my daughter’s eyes serve for my own.”
---
## THESEUS:
“She tells me we are fortunate enough to meet you.”
---
## OEDIPUS:
Can you tell me, what ground is this? What God is honored here?
---
## THESEUS:
“What ground is this? What God is honored here?”
---
## THE FRIEND:
It must not be touched. Most dreadful are its divinities, most feared, daughters of darkness. Spirits. Furies.
---
The people here prefer to address them as Gentle All-Seeing ones.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Then may they be gentle to the suppliant. For I shall never leave this resting place.
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
Fair Colonus
Land of running horses
Where leaves and berries throng
---
template: song
And wine-dark ivy climbs the bough
The sweet sojourning nightingale
Murmurs all night long
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
Here with drops of Heaven’s dew
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) Heaven's dew
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
At daybreak all the year
The clusters of narcissus bloom
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) narcissus
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
Time-hallowed garlands for the brows
Of those great ladies whom we fear
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) great ladies
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
Fair Colonus
Land of the running horses
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) running horses
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
Where leaves and berries throng
And wine-dark ivy climbs the bough
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) climbs the bough
---
template: song
## THE FRIEND:
The sweet sojourning nightingale
Murmurs all night long
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) all night long
---
## OEDIPUS:
Fair Colonus…
---
## THESEUS:
“Fair Colonus…”
---
## OEDIPUS:
And who is he whose word has power here?
---
## THE FRIEND:
This land is governed by King Theseus
---
## OEDIPUS:
Tell him a small favor will gain him much.
---
## THE FRIEND:
What service can a blind man render him?
---
## OEDIPUS:
All I shall say will be clear-sighted indeed.
---
It was ordained. I recognize it now. I shall never leave this resting place.
---
Daughter, lead me on. Lead me on.
---
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo
---
template: song
Stop! Do not go on
You cannot walk this ground
Stop! Ooo ooo ooo
---
template: song
Do not go on
Do not go on
Daughters of darkness bar the way
---
template: song
Saying, “Stop!
Ooo ooo ooo
Do not go on
Do not go on
----
template: song
Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo
---
template: song
Stop! Do not go on
First you must kneel down and pray
Stop! Do not go on
---
template: song
Till the Gods answer “Yes, yes you may!”
Saying, “Stop!
Ooo ooo ooo
---
template: song
Do not go on
Do not go on.
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Here I stand a wanderer
On life’s journey
At the close of the day
---
template: song
So hungry and so tired
Beaten by the rain
Oh
---
template: song
Won’t you give me shelter
All I need is a resting place
Promised so long (promised so long) ago
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
Stop! Do not go on
This place is holy
Ooo ooo ooo
---
template: song
Stop! Do not go on
You cannot walk this ground
Stop! Do not go on
---
template: song
Til the Gods answer yes, yes you may
Saying, “Stop!
Do not go on
Do not go on.”
---
template: song
(ad libbing, repeated) Don’t go on...
---
template: song
[music changes]
## CHORAGOS:
Oh…?
Who is this man?
---
template: song
What is his name?
Where does he come from?
---
## EVANGELIST:
(spoken) And when he heard that, he was afraid, and he turned to his daughter and said:
---
## OEDIPUS:
“God in Heaven help me, what will become of me now, child?”
---
## EVANGELIST:
And she said:
---
## ANTIGONE:
“Tell them, Father, you cannot hide.”
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
Who is this man?
What is his name?
Where does he come from?
---
template: song
What is his race?
Who was his father?
Who was his father?
---
## EVANGELIST:
And he answered, saying:
---
## OEDIPUS:
“My father was Laius of the race Labdacidae. Do not ask my name, my star was unspeakable.”
## CHORAGOS:
You oughta speak. Speak right now! Speak now! Speak!
---
## OEDIPUS:
I am the accursed. I am Oedipus.
---
## EVANGELIST:
And while he suffers, there comes a woman
Riding a pony and wearing a [wide hat/gold veil]… crying…
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
FATHER! SISTER
---
## EVANGELIST:
She is Ismene.
Princess of Thebes,
Sister and daughter to the accursed.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Sister to me.
---
template: song
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
Father, Sister, dearest voices,
I have found you and I don’t know how
---
template: song
Father, Sister – I hear your voices
But am I dreaming? Or are you here right now?
Won’t you tell me
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Please tell me
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) I want to know how
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears?
---
template: song
## ISMENE:
Father, Sister, the Gods have spoken
I bring a promise, a holy vow
---
template: song
## ISEMENE:
A world that cast you down forgives you
And those who blamed you sing your praises now
Won’t you tell me
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Please tell me
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) I need to know
---
template: song
## CHORUS
How shall I see you through my tears
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Yeah
---
template: song
## CHORUS
Destiny brings you back to
me
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Child, I’m so glad you’re here”
There’s hope for me, there’s a prophecy
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Destiny brings you back to me
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Child I’m so glad you’re here
There’s hope for me, there’s a prophecy
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Destiny brings you back to me
---
template: song
## ISMENE ANTIGONE:
A world that cast you out
They forgive you now
---
template: song
## CHORUS
Destiny brings you back to me
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE
(ad libbing) Hey, hey
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
I’ve been waiting for a sign
To ease my troubled mind
(vamping) Oooh
---
## EVANGELIST:
(over the music) Why have you come, child? What news from Thebes did you bring your father? Where are your brothers?
---
## EVANGELIST and ISMENE:
She tells of his sons Polyneices and Eteocles. First it was their desire that the throne should pass to Lord Creon;
---
that thus the city of Thebes should be defiled no longer by their/our family’s ancient curse.
---
But then the sons began to itch for power, how they fought till Eteocles, the younger son, threw the elder out, and took the throne.
---
How Polyneices then went to Argos, committed treason for an army; sold out his city of Thebes for the promise of his father’s throne.
---
How he marches on Thebes now. Brother, the traitor, marches on brother, the usurper now, and, trembling at his coming, Thebes calls for you.
---
## OEDIPUS:
For me?
---
## EVANGELIST and ISMENE:
Thebes call for you to be a shield against your son. The oracles declare their strength in you.
---
The proof of it is that Creon is coming for you for that same reason.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Will my soul rest satisfied? Will Thebes bury me in Theban ground?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Ah, Father!
---
## EVANGELIST:
No, your father’s blood forbids it.
---
## OEDIPUS:
They will never hold me! Gods! May their fires of ambition never be quenched. Let the last word be mine on this battle.
---
Let them that would be the kings of Thebes before sons of Oedipus — Let them kill each other!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) Please tell me
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) I need to know
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
How shall I see you through my tears?
## ISMENE and ANTIGONE:
(ad libbing) Thru my tears
---
template: song
## ISMENE:
Well, I’m crying tears of sadness
Father, won’t you turn them into tears of gladness?
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Through my tears, through my tears
Tears…
Tears…
Tears…
---
## EVANGELIST:
It will be bitter for them when they stand where you are buried and feel your anger there.
---
## OEDIPUS:
So let Creon be sent to find me. Creon or any other of influence in the state.
---
If you here consent – as do the powers holy and awful, the spirits of this place — to give me refuge.
---
Then shall Colonus have a great savior; and woe to mine enemies.
---
## ANTIGONE:
But for now, Father, pray to the Gods whose ground you violated here. Ask their forgiveness.
---
## OEDIPUS:
What shall I do?
---
## ANTIGONE:
You must first bring libations from the spring that runs forever.
---
## OEDIPUS:
And when I have the holy water?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Take this bowl. Put chaplets round the rim.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Of myrtle springs, or wool?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Of fleece cropped from a young lamb.
---
## OEDIPUS:
How shall I perform this rite?
---
## ANTIGONE:
You must face the quarter of the morning light and pour out your libation.
---
## OEDIPUS:
From this bowl?
---
## ANTIGONE:
In one clear stream. Empty and fill it again with water and honey. But without wine.
---
## OEDIPUS:
And when this earth receives it?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Cover the place with olive… And then pray, Father, saying:
---
“Daughters. Spirits. Be gentle of heart. Accept with gentleness the suppliant and his wish.”
---
## OEDIPUS (CHORUS responding):
“Daughters. Spirits. Be gentle of heart. Accept with gentleness the suppliant and his wish.”
[music stops]
---
---
## CHORAGOS:
What evil things have slept since long ago?
---
## OEDIPUS:
Do not open my old wound and my shame.
---
## CHORAGOS:
It is told everywhere and never dies.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Thebes married me to evil, fate and I were joined there.
---
## CHORAGOS:
It was your mother with whom the thing was done?
---
## OEDIPUS:
Yes: and those two girls of mine were given birth by her who gave birth to me.
---
## CHORAGOS:
Then they are your daughters; they are also…
---
## OEDIPUS:
Sisters. Yes… their father’s sisters.
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
Ah… Pity. Pity yeah! Pity yeah! Pity. You suffered –
---
## OEDIPUS:
Yes…
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
And Colonus, he sinned.
---
## OEDIPUS:
No!
---
templateL song
## CHORAGOS:
You killed…
---
## OEDIPUS:
No!
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
You killed your father!
---
## OEDIPUS:
God in Heaven!
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS:
You killed him!
---
## OEDIPUS and THESEUS:
“No! I shall not be judged so. In me, myself, you could not find such evi as would have made me sin against my own.
---
Perhaps our ancestors angered God long ago.”
---
He said, “If there were prophecies repeated by the oracles of the gods that the father’s death would come from his own son...
---
... how could you justly blame it upon me? On me, who was yet unborn, yet unconceived? He wished to murder me, I did not know him.
---
Before the law – before God – I am innocent.”
---
## THESEUS:
Antigone pleads with the people of Colonus.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Reverent men! Blessed women!
---
Since you will not suffer my father, old man that he is, take pity on me and let me intercede.
---
Not with lost eyes, but looking in your eyes as if I were a child of yours, I beg mercy for him, a beaten man! Hear me!
---
We are thrown upon your mercy as on God’s; be kinder than you seem! Gods, I pray you! Be compassionate!
---
For you will never see in all the world a man whom God has let escape his destiny!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
A voice foretold
Where I shall die
Where my soul shall rest
## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Where my soul shall rest
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
And my body lie
Where pain unending
Ends for me
## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Ends for me
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Where I shall find
Sanctuary
## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Sanctuary
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
A voice foretold
That at my grave
Down my God shall come
## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Down my God shall come
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
My soul he surely will save
And I shall be
Endowed with grace
## CHORUS:
(ad libbing) Endowed with grace
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
And I shall find
My resting place
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Hear me
Hear me
Hear me
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
O Lord, hear my prayer
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Hear me
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
O Lord, hear my prayer
---
## OEDIPUS:
(over the music) Ladies whose eyes are terrible: Spirits: upon your sacred ground I have first bent my knees in this new land;
---
therefore, you be mindful of me and of Apollo, for when he gave me oracles of evil, he also spoke of this: a resting place,
---
That after long years in the last country, where I should find a home among the powers of justice: that I might round out there my bitter life.
---
Conferring benefits on those who received me, and a curse on those who have driven me away.
---
Portents, he said, would make me sure of this: earthquakes, thunder, or God’s smiling lightening;
---
but I am sure of it now, sure that you guided me and led me here into your hallowed wood.
---
How otherwise could I have found this chair of stone?
---
Grant me then, Goddesses, passage from life at last, and consummation, as the unearthly voice foretold;
---
unless indeed I seem not worthy of your grace — bound as I am to such ending pain as no man had before.
---
O hear my prayer, sweet children of original Darkness hear me, pity a poor man’s carcass and his ghost, for Oedipus is not the strength he was.
---
Therefore, in the name of God, give me shelter! Give me sanctuary! Through my face be dreadful in its look, yet honor me!
---
For I come as one endowed with grace by those who are over Nature; and I bring advantage. I bring advantage.
---
I bring advantage to this place.
---
template: song
Where pain unending
Ends for me
---
template: song
And I shall find
Oh let me find
Please let me find
---
template: song
I got to find
Hey
Sanctuary
---
## ANTIGONE:
Father, Theseus has come.
---
## THESEUS:
In the old time I often heard men tell of the bloody extinction of his eyes.
---
Even if on my way I were not informed, I’d recognize him, son of Laius. I am sorry for him.
---
I too was an exile. Therefore no wanderer shall come to me, as she has done and be denied.
---
[ALTERNATIVE
In the old time I often heard men tell
Of the bloody extinction of your eyes.
Even if on my way I were not informed,
I’d recognize you, son of Laius.
The garments and the tortured face
Make plain your identity. I am sorry for you.
And I should like to know what favor here
You hope for from the city and from me:
Both you and your unfortunate companion.
Tell me. It would be something dire indeed
To make me leave you comfortless; for I
To was an exile. I grew up abroad,
And in strange lands I fought as few men have
With danger and with death.
Therefore, no wanderer shall come, as you do
And be denied my audience or aid.
I know I am only a man; I have no more
To hope for in the end than you have.]
---
He has asked for grace! And offers no small favor in return. As I value this, I shall not, I cannot, I will not refuse this man’s desire.
---
template: song
## THESEUS and CHORUS:
We will never
We will never
---
template: song
No no never
No never
Drive you away
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
We will never
We will never
---
template: song
No no never
No never
Drive you away
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no
---
template: song
We will never
We will never
---
template: song
No no never
No never
Drive you away
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
Oh no
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
I stood a wanderer
On life’s journey
At the close of the day
---
template: song
Hungry and tired
I was beaten by the rain
---
template: song
Why don’t you give me shelter
All I need is a resting place
---
template: song
Promised so long
Promised so long
Promised so long ago
---
template: song
## CHORAGOS and CHORUS:
We will never
No no never
Drive you away
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
---
template: song
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
From peace in this land
---
## OEDIPUS:
(ad libbing) I am happy here. There is peace here. There is contentment here. I want everybody to know — I feel good.
---
template: song
## FULL COMPANY:
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
No never, no no never
---
template: song
We will never drive you away
We will never drive you away
We will never drive you away
---
template: song
From peace in this land…
---
---
## CREON:
Greetings!
---
Citizens of this land, I bring your greetings! I can see my arrival has been a cause of considerable fear to you.
---
Don’t’ be afraid and don’t be hostile! I am an old man; I don’t want hostilities.
---
## THESEUS:
Four eleven, page 121 in your text – Creon, King of Thebes, comes to Colonus.
---
## CREON:
I come for this man here. Yes, I am sent to bring him to the land of Thebes.
---
It was ordered by the whole Theban people. I am the emissary because it fell to me as his relative.
---
Poor Oedipus. Come home. Your people summon you. Your people are right to summon you. Come home.
---
I grieve for your unhappiness, old man. I see you ravaged. A stranger everywhere, never at rest, leading a beggar’s life, with only a girl to help you.
---
Does this not shame our people?
---
In the name of your father’s Gods, bury the whole thing now; agree to go back to your city and your home! Come on back home.
---
## THESEUS:
And Oedipus answered Creon thusly:
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
When I was sick with my own life’s evil
When I would –
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
— gladly have left this earth
you had no mind
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
You had no mind to –
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
— give me what I wanted!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
But when at last I had my full
Of rage and grief, and in my –
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
— quiet house.
I’d made my peace
That was the time
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
That was the time
You chose to –
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
— rout me out.
---
## THESEUS:
(speaking over the music) He said, “Suppose you beg for something and no man will grant it or even sympathize.
---
But later when you were glutted with all your heart’s desire…”
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
All my –
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Heart’s desire!
---
## THESEUS:
“When charity’s no charity at all? Then he gives it to you.”
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
You see this city and all its people
Being kind to me, so you would
Take me away!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Evil kindness!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Evil kindness!
That’s the kind of kindness you –
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
— offer me!
You’d take him away
But you would not take him home
---
template: song
You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
You’d take me away
To a prison outside the walls
You’d take me away
To a prison outside the walls
---
(spoken) You think that way the city of Thebes may escape my curse. You think you’ll get reprieved from punishment!
---
No! No! You’ll not get reprieved! What you’ll get is all my vengeance rampant in that land forever!
---
And what my sons will get of my old kingdom is just so much room as they need to die in!
---
template: song
Just the room they need to die in!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
You’d take him away
But you would not take him home
---
template: song
You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls – You!
---
template: song
You’d take him away
But you would not take him home
---
template: song
You’d take him away
To a prison outside the walls – You!
---
## CREON:
Oedipus! Time brings you no wisdom! While you were ranting I have seized your daughters.
---
---
## OEDIPUS:
You have my children? God help me now.
---
## THESEUS:
God help him now. For don’t you see in taking his children, Creon has effectively taken his eyes, rendering him helpless,
---
As if “standing in the wind of death.” Ode 1, strophe 2, line 6: As if “standing in the late wind of death”.
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Creon! Creon!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
You who have taken them
## OEDIPUS:
You who have taken them
Who have served my naked eyepits as eyes
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
On you and yours forever
## OEDIPUS:
On you and yours forever
May God, watcher of all the world
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Confer
## OEDIPUS:
Confer
On you such days I have had
My God!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
My God!
## OEDIPUS:
My God!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
My God!
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
My God!
## OEDIPUS:
My God!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
And such an age
And such an age
And such an age
And such an age as mine.
---
---
template: song
## THESEUS, OEDIPUS, CHORUS:
Numberless are the world’s wonders
But none more wonderful than man
The storm-gray sea yields to his prows
---
template: song
Huge crests bear him high
Earth, holy and inexhaustible,
Is graven with shining furrows where his
Plows have gone
---
template: song
Numberless are the world’s wonders
But none more wonderful than man
Words and thought rapid as air
---
template: song
He fashions for his use
And his the skill that deflects
The arrows of snow
The spears of winter rain
---
template: song
From every wind he has made himself secure
From every wind he has made himself secure
From all but one… all but one
---
template: song
In the late wind of death he
He cannot stand.
---
## THESEUS:
Stay here and rest assured. I will not draw breath until I have put your children in your hands again.
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
I wish the wind would lift me
I wish the wind would lift me
---
template: song
Like a dove
Like a dove
---
template: song
I wish the wind would lift me
So I could look with the eyes of angels
For the child that I love
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS and CHORUS:
I wish the Lord would hide me
I wish the Lord would hide me
---
template: song
In a cloud
In a cloud
---
template: song
I wish the Lord would hide me
I’d fall like a rain of fire
---
template: song
And I’d lie, lie, lie, lie…
Like a shroud
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Like a dove – (think I can go higher)
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
---
template: song
Lift me up
Lift me up
Lift me up
Like a dove – (think I can go higher)
---
## POLYNEICES:
Father!
---
## THESEUS:
Polyneices, eldest son of Oedipus, comes to Colonus.
---
Fortunate is the man who has never tasted God’s vengeance! Where once the anger of Heaven has struck, that house is shaken forever:
---
Damnation rises behind each child like a black wave cresting.
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
He sees his father – an old man
He’s just an outcast in a strange land
He says:
---
## POLYNEICES:
(speaking over the music) I have been evil!
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
Evil – everybody’s talking about me.
---
## POLYNEICES:
I don’t support my father.
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
Son didn’t stand by his father.
---
## POLYNEICES:
In his hour of need.
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
In his hour of need.
---
## POLYNEICES:
Father, shall I weep first for my own misfortunes or for yours?
---
Father, God himself seats mercy by his throne. So may mercy restrain you now as well. Wrongs, wrongs can still be healed.
---
Speak to me!
[music stops]
---
Why are you silent?
---
template: song
[music starts]
## THESEUS:
(vamping) ‘Cause you’re evil! You’re so evil!
---
## ANTIGONE:
Father, I wish some God would give you eyes to see. We have been brought back to you.
---
## OEDIPUS:
My children, where are you? Come quickly to my hands.
---
They are your brother’s – hands that have brought your father’s once clear eyes to this way of seeing.
---
## POLYNEICES:
Antigone, Ismene, my sisters.
---
Make him reply. I come on a pilgrimage.
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
He sees his sisters
Running to their father’s side
He says, “Talk to him.”
## POLYNEICES:
(spoken) Talk to him.
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
“Can't you make him reply?”
## POLYNEICES:
(spoken) Can’t you make him reply?
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
He says, “Sisters,
Won't you take my part?”
## POLYNEICES:
(spoken) Sisters,
Won’t you take my part?
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
And they say, they say
---
template: song
## ANTIGONE ISMENE:
Brother…
---
## ANTIGONE and EVANGELIST:
You yourself must touch his heart. Be rooted in your father’s arms and rest.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Ah my dears, be rooted in your father’s arms, and rest.
---
## POLYNEICES:
I will speak out then!
[music stops]
---
Father. I will tell you why I came.
---
I am a fugitive, driven from my country because as the eldest son born I thought fit to take my seat upon your sovereign throne.
---
And for this my younger brother banished me. Of this I believe the Furies that pursue him were indeed the cause –
---
-- or so I hear from clairvoyants whom I afterwards consulted. Then why, why should I come here now?
---
template: song
[music starts]
## THESEUS and EVANGELIST:
He’s so slick.
---
## POLYNEICES:
Father! These same oracles... They say that those you bless and only those that you bless… shall come to power.
---
My prayers and those of all who fight with me must then be made to you. Great captains follow me.
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Stand… stand by me
Stand… stand by me
Stand… stand by me
---
[Chorus continues to sing under Polyneices]
## POLYNEICES:
Now in the name of these brave men and for your own soul’s sake, we your children all implore and beg you to give up your heavy wrath against me!
---
Listen to me. We are beggars, are we not?
---
Both of us are exiles, he and I. We live by paying court to other men, and the same fate follows us.
---
But as for my brother, he lords it in our house, luxuriates there, and he laughs, he laughs at both of us, Father.
---
I go forth to punish him who robbed me of my kingdom. If you will stand by me in my resolve,
I’ll waste no time or trouble whipping him.
---
And then I will re-establish you in our house, and settle there myself, and throw him out.
[music stops]
---
If your will is the same as mine, it is possible to promise this.
---
If not, I will die.
---
---
## OEDIPUS:
LIAR!
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Once you held the power
And when you did you drove me out
Made me a homeless man
---
template: song
You are no son of mine
You are no son of mine
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
O you break my heart
You break my heart
---
template: song
O you break my heart
Don’t do it – don’t do it
---
## THESEUS:
Weeping is no good now! For we have placed a curse on you that we now invoke!
---
## OEDIPUS and THESEUS:
You shall never see your native land again. You shall never see your native land again.
---
You will go down all bloody and your brother too. Yes, you shall die by your own brother’s hand. And you shall kill the man who banished you.
---
For this I pray and cry out to the hated underworld that it may take you home.
---
## POLYNEICES:
Father!
---
## OEDIPUS THESEUS:
Wretched son! We cry out to the hated underworld that it may take you home!
---
## POLYNEICES:
Father! Father! Father!
---
## EVANGELIST:
Love, unconquerable waster of men. Surely you swerve upon ruin here. You have made bright and anger strike
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
(spoken) Between father
## ISMENE:
father
---
template: song
## EVANGELIST:
(spoken) and son.
## ISMENE:
son
---
## EVANGELIST:
Even immortals cannot escape you; And mortal man, in his one day’s dusk, trembles before your glory.
---
template: song
## ISMENE:
Trembles.
---
---
## THESEUS:
Though he has watched a decent age pass by, a man will sometimes still desire the world.
## OEDDIPUS:
desire the world.
---
## THESEUS:
I swear I see no wisdom in that man.
## OEDIPUS:
in that man.
---
## THESEUS:
The endless hours pile up a drift of pain more unrelieved each day;
## OEDIPUS:
each day;
---
## THESEUS:
and as for pleasure, when he is sunken in excessive age.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Well, that means, he’s gotten to be an old man.
---
## THESEUS:
You will not see his pleasure anywhere.
## OEDIPUS:
anywhere.
---
## THESEUS:
The last attendant is the same for all - old men and young alike, there being then no music and no dance.
---
## THESEUS:
Death is the finish. Not to be born surpasses all philosophy.
## OEDIPUS:
all philosophy.
---
## THESEUS:
The second best is to have seen the light
## OEDIPUS:
seen the light
---
## THESEUS:
And then to go back quickly from whence we came.
## OEDIPUS:
whence we came.
---
## THESEUS:
The feathery follies of his youth once over, what trouble is beyond the rage of man?
## OEDIPUS:
rage of man?
---
## THESEUS:
What heavy burden will he not endure?
## OEDIPUS:
not endure?
---
## THESEUS:
Jealousy, faction, quarrelling, and battle, the bloodiness of war, the grief of war.
## OEDIPUS:
Jealousy, faction, quarrelling, and battle, the bloodiness of war, the grief of war.
---
## THESEUS:
And in the end he comes to strengthless age: abhorred by all men, unfriended,
## OEDIPUS:
abhorred by all men, unfriended,
---
## THESEUS:
Without company, in that uttermost twilight
## OEDIPUS:
Without company,
---
## THESEUS:
Where he must live with every, every, every bitter thing.
## OEDIPUS:
every, every, every bitter thing.
---
## THESEUS:
This is the truth, my friend,
## OEDIPUS:
truth, my friend,
---
## THESEUS:
Not just for you only, a blind and ruined man.
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Maybe not for you. But maybe for me.
---
template: song
You see, here I am. I’m a blind man. But here I am.
I’m a messed-up man. But here I am.
---
template: song
I’m a ruined man. Here I am. Here I am.
Aaaah!
---
## THESEUS:
You know, I think some shore in the north concussive waves make stream this way and that in the gales of winter.
---
It is like that with me sometimes – The wild wrack breaking over me, all the way from my head to my foot, and coming on forever.
---
Now from the plunging down of the sun. Now from the sunrise quarter. Now from where the noonday gleams. Now from the night and from the north.
---
[thunder]
[Chorus sings under Theseus]
I hear it this evening, children.
---
I hear it cascading down in the air! I’m talking about the God-thrown, I’m talking about the gigantic, holy sound!
---
I want you to know that terror crawls all the way to the tips of my hair!
---
I want you to know this evening that my heart shakes! My soul is salvation bound.
---
And where my body will repair, I know that
Great God Almighty’s smiling lightning opens up the ground.
---
[thunderclap]
Bless his name!
---
## EVANGELIST:
Theseus, the lord of Athens, addresses Oedipus, the accursed of Thebes.
---
[rolling thunder continues]
## THESEUS:
Oedipus! Heaven’s height has cracked!
---
## OEDIPUS:
Theseus!
---
## THESEUS:
Your hour has come.
---
## OEDIPUS:
This is God’s work! My lord, I longed for you to come. My soul sinks in the scale.
---
## THESEUS:
I believe you. I have seen you prophecy many a thing, none falsely.
---
## OEDIPUS:
I would not die without fulfilling what I promised.
---
I shall disclose to you what is appointed for you and your city. A thing that age will never wear away.
---
For every nation that lives peaceably, another will grow hard and push it’s arrogance, put off God and turn into madness.
---
Fear not. God attends to these things slowly; but he attends. You know this; you know all that I teach.
---
template: song
## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
O sunlight of no light
Once you were mine
This is the last my flesh will feel of you
---
template: song
## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
For now I go to shade my ending days
In the dark underworld.
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) Most cherished friend, you alone may see the place I am to die.
## CHORUS:
This is the last my flesh
Will feel of you
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
(spoken) And he said unto me...
## CHORUS:
For now
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) You must never tell it to any man.
## CHORUS:
I go to shade
---
template: song
## THESEUS:
(spoken) “You must never tell it to any man.”
## CHORUS:
My ending days
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
(spoken) For these things are mysteries, not to be explained.
## CHORUS:
In the dark underworld
---
## THESEUS:
“For these things are mysteries.”
---
## OEDIPUS:
You will understand when you alone will come on it.
---
Alone, because I cannot reveal it to anyone, not even my children, much as I love them.
---
## THESEUS:
And he could not reveal these mysteries even to his children.
---
template: song
## CHORUS and OEDIPUS:
O sunlight of no light
Once you were mine
Now in the shadow of the vale I pray
---
template: song
You warmed my flesh above, now bless my soul
In the cold underworld…
---
## THESEUS:
(speaking over the music) He told me to keep it secret always.
---
This way God will preserve us from our enemies. And hold us and our city safe forever.
---
We must be mindful of his suffering, his death and his redemption. And this our land and all our people will be blessed.
---
## OEDIPUS:
Remember me. Be mindful of my death. And be fortunate in all the time to come.
---
## THESEUS:
Remember him. Be mindful of his death. And be fortunate for all the time to come.
---
template: song
## ANTIGONE, ISMENE, CHORUS:
O sunlight of no light
O sunlight of no light
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Once you were mine
---
template: song
## SOLOISTS:
Let not our friend go down
In grief and weariness
Let some just God spare him
From any more distress
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well
---
template: song
## SOLOISTS:
We pray to almighty ones
Let his descent be clear
On those dim fields of underground
That all men living fear
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Down, down, down he goes
## SOLOISTS:
To a house that has no light
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
He goes among the ghosts
## SOLOISTS:
Spirits plunged through the night
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Down, down, down below —
## SOLOISTS:
He goes among the ghosts
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
O eternal sleep
Child of earth and hell
O eternal sleep
## SOLOISTS:
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Let him sleep well
O eternal sleep
Let him sleep well
---
---
## EVANGELIST:
He has gone. It was not war, nor the deep sea, that overtook him, but something invisible and strange caught him up… or down… into a place unseen.
---
Listen, as sisters mourn their brother and daughters mourn their father.
---
## ANTIGONE:
O Father! My dear… now you are shrouded in eternal darkness. Even in that absence you shall not lack our love.
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
(continuous) Down, down, down he goes
Down, down, down below –
---
## THESEUS:
He lived his life.
---
## ANTIGONE:
In this land among strangers, he dies where he chose to die. His eternal bed is well shaded. And in his death he is not un-mourned.
---
## ANTIGONE:
My eyes are blind with tears from crying for you, Father. The terror and the loss cannot be quieted.
## ISMENE:
(sings) crying
---
## ANTIGONE:
I know you wished to die in a strange country. Yet your death was so lonely!
## ISMENE:
(sings) lonely!
---
## ANTIGONE:
Why could I not be with you? Why?
---
## THESEUS:
That is not permitted. He has no tomb.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Where shall I go?
## ISMENE:
(sings) Where
---
## ANTIGONE:
How shall I live?
## ISMENE:
(sings) How
---
## ANTIGONE:
O take me there and kill me too.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Great God! What way is left me? What way?
## ISMENE:
(sings) What way? What way?
---
## THESEUS:
Mourn no more. Those to whom the night of earth gives benediction should not be mourned. Retribution comes.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Mourn no more. Mourn no more. Those to whom the night of earth gives benediction should not be mourned. Retribution comes.
---
template: song
## ISMENE:
Retribution comes.
## ANTIGONE:
Retribution comes.
---
template: song
(repeated)
## ISMENE:
Retribution comes.
## ANTIGONE:
Retribution comes.
---
## THESEUS:
Rejoice, sisters. He has left this world.
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
Well I’m crying hallelujah
Yes I’m crying hallelujah
I was blind, he made me see
---
template: song
Yes I’m crying hallelujah
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices so heavenly
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
Lift him high – lift him high – higher
---
template: song
## SOLOIST and CHORUS:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind, so blind, and he made me see
Crying hallelujah
---
template: song
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly
---
template: song
## CHORUS:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
Set him free Lord, set him free
---
template: song
## CHORUS and SOLOIST:
Crying hallelujah
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly
---
template: song
Lift him up – lift him up
O lift him up – lift him up
Lift him up – lift him up
O lift him up – lift him up
---
template: song
Lift him high high high high high high – higher
Lift him high high high high high high – higher
Lift him high high high high high high – higher
---
template: song
## OEDIPUS:
Lift me up – lift me up
---
template: song
## ALL:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind! He made me see
Crying hallelujah
---
template: song
## ALL:
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly
## KELVIN:
(ad libbing)
---
template: song
## ALL:
Crying hallelujah – crying hallelujah
I was blind! He made me see
Crying hallelujah
---
template: song
Lift him up in a blaze of glory
With a choir of voices heavenly
---
---
## KELVIN:
By God’s mercy, was his death a painless one?
---
(ad libbing) Yes, you may wonder, “Was his death a painless one?”
---
That is the thing that seems so marvelous. You know, for you were witnesses, how he left this place with no friend leading him,
---
Acting, himself, as a guide for all of us.
---
Well, when he came to a steep place in the road, the embankment there, secured with steps of brass,
---
He stopped in one of the many branching paths.
---
Halfway between that place of stone, with its hollow pear tree, and the marble tomb, he sat down and undid his filthy garments.
---
Then he called to his daughters and commanded that they should bring him water from a fountain for bathing and libation to the dead.
---
From there they could see the hillcrest of Demeter, freshener of all things.
---
They ascended the hills and soon came back with water for their father; they helped him properly to bathe and dress.
---
When everything was completed to his satisfaction, and no command of his remained undone, the earth groaned with thunder from God below.
---
And as they heard the sound, the children were so afraid, and dropped to their fathers knees,
---
and began shuttering, beating their breasts, and began to weep as if heartbroken.
---
And hearing them cry out so bitterly, he put his arms around them and said to them:
---
“My Children, my Children, this day your father is gone from you. All that was mine is gone.
---
You no longer have to bear the burden of taking care of me.
---
I know it was hard, my children, and yet one word, one word frees us of all the pain and burdens of this life;
---
That word is love. Love. Never shall you have more from any man than you have had from me.
---
But now you must spend the rest of your life without me.”
---
They huddled there together, the three of them and wept.
---
And there was silence, and in the silence suddenly a voice cried out to him of such a kind it made our hair stand in panic and fear.
---
Again and again the call came from his God:
---
“Oedipus! Oedipus! Why do you wait? You delay too long; you delay too long to go.”
---
This much everyone of us heard God say.
---
And after a while as we withdrew, we turned around – and nowhere saw that man.
---
In what manner Oedipus perished, no one of mortal men could tell.
---
It was not lightning, bearing its fire, that took him off. Ah, no hurricane was blowing.
---
But some attendant from the train of Heaven came for him; or else the underworld opened up with love the unlit door of the earth.
---
For he was taken without lamentation, suffering, or pain. Yes —
---
He was taken without lamentation, suffering, or pain.
---
Indeed his end was wonderful if mortal’s ever was.
---
Now let the weeping cease. Let no one mourn again. The love of God will bring you peace. There is no end.
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
Now let the weeping cease
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
Let no one mourn again
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
The love of God will bring you peace
---
template: song
## SOLOIST:
There is no end
---
template: song
## ALL:
Now let the weeping cease
---
template: song
Let no one mourn again
---
template: song
The love of God will bring you peace
---
template: song
There is no end
---
template: song
Now let the weeping cease
---
template: song
Let no one mourn again
---
template: song
The love of God will bring you peace
---
template: song
There is no end
---
## ALL:
(ad libbing)
There is no end.
There is no end.
---
## KELVIN:
(speaking over the music) Now let the weeping cease. Let no one mourn again. These things are in the hands of God.
---
---
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